This invention pertains to printers and printer systems, and, more particularly, to methods and systems for managing printer byproducts.
Printing devices typically use consumable items that must be replaced. In recent years a great amount of work has been done to increase the efficiency of consumable management. Managing consumables effectively can greatly increase the efficiency with which both the consumable and its associated device are used. As an example of some consumables management solutions, the reader is referred to the following U.S. Patents, all of which are incorporated by reference herein: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,154,619, 6,128,448, 6,102,508, 6,019,449, 5,987,269, 5,930,553, 5,812,156, 5,758,224, 5,729,277, and 5,682,140.
There are different types of consumable items. For example, toner is a consumable that is typically used in printers to effect printing on a print media such as paper Toner typically comes in a toner or printer cartridge with a defined amount of toner. When the toner is depleted it must be replaced for printing to continue. The large amount of work done in this area has delivered great returns. Now, monitoring how much toner remains in a printer cartridge so that the user will know when the toner cartridge needs to be replaced is done very efficiently. This has lead to greater printer efficiency and less down time.
During printing, toner is removed from the toner supply and transferred to an intermediary device before being transferred to a sheet of paper. Commonly, the intermediary device is a rotating drum. Various techniques are used for properly positioning toner on the drum for transfer to the paper. However, for various reasons, some toner is not transferred to the paper and remains on the drum. This used or waste toner must be removed before the drum revolves around to pick up the toner for the next page or unwanted printing can occur. This task is often accomplished with a cleaning blade which wipes any remaining toner off of the drum.
The toner or printer cartridge generally has a volume dedicated to the storage of the waste toner. Under some circumstances, however, the amount of used or waste toner can exceed this volume. In these circumstances, the waste toner may overflow the cartridge and fall or drip onto pages as they are printed. In this case, existing printers do not detect anything wrong. Yet, the user, seeing misplaced toner on the page, assumes the printer to be malfunctioning and typically calls for a repairman to come fix the printer. This is very expensive and time consuming and causes decreased user confidence in the printer as well as undesirable downtime. Thus, the great strides made in monitoring consumables have now reached a level where a problematic area is not so much monitoring consumables before they are used, but dealing with the byproducts of consumables such as toner.
Accordingly, this invention arose out of concerns associated with providing improved systems and methods for managing printer byproducts.
Waste toner monitoring systems and methods are described. In one embodiment, a novel printer cartridge construction is provided. The printer cartridge comprises a housing, a cavity within the housing for holding used toner, and a sensor positioned to detect a condition associated with the cavity becoming full.
In another embodiment, a system is provided for providing a notification when a printer cartridge needs to be replaced. The system comprises a printer, a printer cartridge for the printer having a waste volume, and a sensor operably coupled with the printer cartridge for sensing the waste volume in the printer cartridge. When toner in the waste volume reaches a predetermined level, a notification can be generated which can help ensure that an overflow situation does not occur.